This invention relates to electronic signal processing, and more particularly, to signal processing directed to reducing peak to average power ratio in radio frequency signals.
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a medium for providing digital-quality audio, superior to existing analog broadcasting formats. FM In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) DAB can be transmitted in a hybrid format where the digitally modulated signal coexists with the currently broadcast analog FM signal, or in an all-digital format where the analog FM signal has been eliminated. IBOC requires no new spectral allocations because each DAB signal is simultaneously transmitted within the same spectral mask of an existing FM channel allocation. IBOC promotes economy of spectrum while enabling broadcasters to supply digital quality audio to their present base of listeners.
The advantages of digital transmission for audio include better signal quality with less noise and wider dynamic range than with existing FM radio channels. Initially the hybrid format would be adopted allowing the existing receivers to continue to receive the analog FM signal while allowing new IBOC receivers to decode the digital signal. Some time in the future, when IBOC DAB receivers are abundant, broadcasters may elect to transmit the all-digital format. The goal of FM hybrid IBOC DAB is to provide virtual CD-quality stereo digital audio (plus data) while simultaneously transmitting the existing FM signal. The goal of FM all-digital IBOC DAB is to provide virtual CD-quality stereo audio along with a data channel with capacity of up to about 200 kbps, depending upon a particular station's interference environment.
One proposed FM IBOC broadcasting system uses a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) carriers to transmit a digital signal. An OFDM signal consists of the sum of several carriers modulated at different equally spaced frequencies, which are orthogonal to each other. This ensures that different subcarriers do not interfere with each other. The magnitude of the transmitted signal in such a system occasionally has very high peaks. Thus the linear power amplifiers used in IBOC DAB transmitters need to operate with large power back-offs so that the out-of-band power is below the imposed limits. This results in very expensive and inefficient amplifiers. Hence, there is a need to reduce the Peak to Average power Ratios (PAR) for an OFDM DAB signal.
This invention provides an efficient scheme for reducing the peak to average power ratio of electronic signals using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, such as may be used in FM IBOC DAB systems.